Forums

Most discussions and interaction in the course take place in forums. The contributions, or postings, made to forums can be viewed in a variety of formats, and can include attachments. As with other online forums, it is possible to subscribe to each forum in the course to be emailed any new messages when they are posted. This will help ensure you are kept up-to-date with discussions.

We recommend that you to login to the courses and read the forum postings within the forums rather than reading them in just in your email so you can see the postings in their correct order. Please do not reply to emails of forum posts from your email; instead, view the post in context in the discussion forum by clicking on the link the email message and reply with your own post.

When you post to a forum, your message is emailed to everyone in the course after 30 minutes. This time delay gives you the chance to re-read your message and correct any mistakes or add anything you like before it is sent out.

Please refer frequently to, and post your own messages to, the forums because they will become an increasingly valuable resource as you and the other students progress through the courses.

By contrast with a face-to-face course, this growing record will provide you with easy reference to your own and others' discussions at any time, but most particularly when you are reflecting on your learning from the course.

Forums Vs. Blogs

Sometimes people confuse discussion forums with blogs. In this system, there are many discussion forums, but you also have a personal blog. Here are some general guidelines to decide when to use a forum versus your blog:

If you need guidance or have a question, post your question to the General Discussion Forum and it will be posted and emailed to the class, including the instructors.

If you want to document your thoughts and don't require a response, write a posting to your blog, which does not get emailed out. Think of your blog as your learning journal.

Read some of the instructors' blogs. They answer many commonly asked questions. To access anyone's blog in this system, click on their name and then click the Blog tab in their profile.

Try this forum

Give this forum a try by clicking 'Add a new discussion topic...' below to start a discussion. Type a brief message about your expectations for this course and click 'Save changes'. Then reply to any other postings here.